The Gate to Styx
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: There was a ghost on the loose in the hospital. And a bunch of missing kids, showing up dead one by one. Oh, and let's not forget mister lion-mask on the prowl in the streets. But how were they supposed to know from the offset that all three were connected?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This was originally two stories. Dunno when the muse mashed them into one, but it happened. :D Context wise, 02 proceeded as normal and this is set in the year 2017, where the 01/02 Chosen are all adults and in their respective professions, but younger than the epilogue. As far as Tri goes, because the whole story hasn't been revealed yet, I'm going with one of my theories, and that is the Agency Himekawa and Daigo work for is responsible for the virus, and due to the presence of the Dark Seed, Ken got a hefty dose of it as well. And everyone saved the day, except there were a few changes in the world (that are explained later in the chapter). As far as Frontier goes, this is a few months post-canon. And I went with the first google result I found for Kouichi's birthday (though I pushed ahead the year to make the ages line up), and made Osamu's up. :D

Challenges

The Prompts in Steps Challenge, 5.09 – problematic  
The Diversity Writing Challenge, i41 – write in the mystery genre

.

.

 **The Gate to Styx**  
 _Chapter 1_

.

There was a ghost on the loose in the hospital. And a bunch of missing kids, showing up dead one by one. Oh, and let's not forget mister lion-mask on the prowl in the streets. But how were they supposed to know from the offset that all three were connected?

The first hint any of them got of the mess was when Jyou brought Gomamon to his clinic at the hospital one day. He tended to do that at least once a week, since Gomamon seemed to be good, therapeutically speaking, for the children. But there weren't any children in his clinic right then. He was doing paperwork. And Gomamon, last he checked, was playing with a few toys he kept for the kids.

So then why was he introducing himself to someone?

Jyou swivelled his chair around – and gaped. There _was_ someone else in the room…if they could be called _someone_. They were translucent, enough so that the playhouse behind him was still plainly visible. And he was floating. Crouched as though he was speaking to someone a quarter of his height, except he was floating a foot in the air, _above_ those action figures Gomamon had been coaxing into position.

If he'd still been twelve years, he would have fainted right then and there.

He wasn't, luckily. Though his vision did blur. And when it came back, the child was gone and he had to ask Gomamon whether he'd been there at all. And for a description in case he cropped up again.

Of course he did.

.

That afternoon, Ken was handed a missing person's report. The first missing child. And bile rose in his throat and the back of his neck burned because he remembered how children had gone missing before in his youth, and why, and what had come of it. Those were the cases he hated the most. And also the ones he had to work the hardest on to get those kids back to their families.

Except there were no leads at all. She'd disappeared on the last leg of her journey home from school: the only leg she was unaccompanied for. No reports of unwanted attention beforehand. No trouble her parents might be in. No reasons for her to run away from home – and having run away himself at one stage, he knew better than most his co-workers to look out for those signs.

And then the second kid turned up missing the following night. Or the next two, rather, one who'd actually been missing earlier than the first girl but had a longer time out of sight so they hadn't realised until later on.

.

Jyou met the ghost again. With Gomamon again. Actually, he'd brought Gomamon twice in the same week for that purpose. The two of them were playing chess…which was actually quite amusing, because Gomamon simply couldn't move the pieces on both sides of the board without hopping from one side to the next. So it was quite exhausting for the little seal.

'Hello,' he said, once he'd composed himself. 'I'm Doctor Kido.'

The boy – because it was a boy, now that he could see better (because Gomamon, as a digimon, doesn't worry much about things like _genders_ ) – looked up at him. Kind of. He more _floated_ up to him. 'Hello,' he said quietly, his voice echoing like he was speaking from far away even though he was so close. 'Kido-sensei,' he said, a moment later. He'd listened to the introduction.

'That's right.' He gave an encouraging smile. He worked with kids after all. Kids of all ages. Most of them scared or hurt and none of them really wanting to be in a hospital. And as far as ghosts or spirits went…well, he was a Chosen. He'd seen weird things before. 'And could you tell me your name?'

'My…name?' the spirit repeated blankly.

'He's forgotten it,' Gomamon piped up. Helpful…but the fact that the spirit or ghost or whatever didn't know his own name was decidedly not.

'And do you know what you're doing here?'

'…playing with Gomamon?'

Jyou could have hit his forehead. That worked fine when testing GCSs or mini-mentals, but not when trying to work out what a ghost – or spirit or whatever – was doing in his clinic. He didn't, of course, because that would've just frightened the poor kid probably.

'In the hospital, I mean,' he clarified. 'Were you sick? In an accident? Did you lose your parents?'

The boy looked at him, then down at Gomamon, then at his hands. 'I don't know.'

.

The ghost vanished again after a little while. Jyou doodled notes on his writing pad. 'Black hair, blue eyes, pale skin, was wearing grey jeans and – ' He froze when he recognised the sweater. Ken used to wear one like that when he was little. And the blue eyes too. And the hair that was maybe only a few shades darker, but messier (but not very messy, all in all). And a bizarre idea was starting to form in his mind.

He called Ken. 'I seem to have a ghost on my hands,' he said, after the pleasantries.

'Pardon?' Ken was bemused. Understandable, because he hadn't made much sense.

'A boy,' Jyou clarified. 'He's been playing with Gomamon, but he seems to phase in and out. I think some of the kids have played with him too.'

'A ghost,' Ken repeated, 'as in, you just don't know who the kid is or…'

'Actually a ghost,' Jyou confirmed. 'Or a spirit. Transparent. Not tangible – he can't touch the chess pieces, though he has no problem beating Gomamon.' Or himself, but he wasn't going to mention that. 'And he floats. And he's got blue eyes and blackish hair – now I don't know whether it's actually blue like ours – and he was wearing that sweater. You know, the one you used to wear in winter when you were eleven or twelve?'

'I remember.' Ken's voice sounded funny suddenly. He'd picked up on Jyou's theory. 'That was Onii-chan's sweater.' There was the sound of rustling paper. 'I thought at first, when one of the missing kids – ' There was a clunk. 'The missing kids!'

Jyou winced. Ken had been unexpectedly loud, there. He knew a few kids had gone missing in the area, but no further details, though it sounded now as though Ken had landed with the case. He winced again. Poor Ken hated cases like that. But what did his ghost have to do with them?

But he could hear rustling papers again. 'Found it!' Ken's voice returned. 'I thought I remembered seeing that sweater in the photos. 'kaa-san gave most of our old clothes to one of those second hand stores. And then one of the kids who disappeared was wearing it.'

Jyou blinked. That was an odd turn of events, as far as the sweater went. But… 'So this kid, do you have a description?'

'Of course.' And he rattled off a description that sounded more exact than Jyou's own observations, but didn't contradict anything. And Ken sounded relieved at each "yep", as well. It was becoming less and less likely that the boy was his brother Osamu from the dead, and more likely the kid who'd disappeared somewhere between Kyoto and Tokyo.

'He's actually the first to disappear,' Ken explained. 'But because it takes over four hours for him to get to his father's house from his mother's and there were lots of innocent things that could have delayed him, they weren't sure until he didn't show up by nightfall.'

That sounded like Yamato and Takeru, before Natsuko-san had moved back to Odaiba and brought them close again.

'Mmm,' said Jyou sympathetically. 'I'm afraid this…uhh, spirit (because ghost was less tactful and he'd made the mistake of calling him that once already) has got amnesia. Doesn't even remember his own name.'

'It's Kimura Kouichi.' Ken was reading off the report again. 'Eleven years old and in fifth grade. Born March 10, 2006.'

Jyou scribbled that quickly. 'I'll let you know if that winds up ringing any bells,' he promised.

'Osamu onii-chan's was April 22, 1988,' Ken added, after a pause. 'Just in case.'

.

'Kimura-kun?' Jyou tried, interrupting yet another chess match between seal and spirit.

The boy shot up. Entirely. As in, he shot through the ceiling and Jyou waited a moment, before climbing the stairs to check.

Indeed, the boy was trying to find the way down again. 'Gomen nasai,' he cried when he saw the doctor. 'It just sort of happened and I can't –'

'You can always take the stairs,' said Jyou, showing him. The spirit followed meekly behind and it made for a rather funny sight – if the implications of reacting to the name weren't so serious. 'So do you think that could be your name? Kimura Kouichi-kun?'

'It sounds familiar, I think,' said the boy. 'I reacted automatically, even though you could have been calling any – ' He cut himself off. 'There was no-one but Gomamon and us.'

'Instinct has a habit of making us forget details like that,' Jyou pointed out. 'Ken will be relieved to hear, at least.'

'Ken..san?' the boy repeated. 'A friend?'

'A very good friend,' nodded Jyou, as they returned to the clinic. 'He's a police officer as well. He's got a case of missing kids at the moment.'

'Missing kids?' The spirit's voice sounded funny, suddenly. Subtly, but Jyou was a doctor. It was part of his job description (and Ken's, and Iori's, though all in different contexts) to notice such subtleties.

'Do you know anything?' Jyou asked, gently but curiously. He hadn't mentioned what else Ken had told him yet. Didn't want to if Kimura-kun could remember by himself. Didn't want to period, because why was he floating around here if he was missing? It made little sense at all. The simplest explanation was that he'd died because he'd met a few ghosts in his lifetime, Oikawa being the most prominent non-digimon one. And the long gruelling road of medical school had taught him all about Occam's razor, how the simplest answer was usually the right one. But that never meant to ignore the other differentials, especially the time critical ones.

And though it was in the context of emergency diagnosis, he didn't see why that sort of advice couldn't apply to all aspects of life.

But the boy shook his head slowly. 'I don't know. Or remember. Gomen.'

`Don't force yourself,' Jyou said softly. 'Hey, you seem to like Gomamon. Why don't I tell you more about digimon?'

.

Ken sighed over the paperwork. Jyou's phone call had been draining and interesting all at once. The possibility that Osamu's eleven year old ghost had crossed over – but more likely it was the missing boy from Kyoto. Though he wanted it to be Osamu. For two reasons; he could finally see his brother again and not just nightmares from the Dark Ocean or BelialVamdemon or even just his own mind, and also for the sake of Kimura-kun and his loved ones. Because for him to be a spirit, or a ghost…did that mean he was already dead? And what did that mean for the other missing kids. There were four of them now. Five days. Four kids. He was dreading the phone ringing again. There hadn't been a report yet but right then it felt like a matter of time.

The phone rang, and despite expecting it, he jumped. 'Odaiba Police Department,' he snapped. _Please don't let it be another missing kid._

It wasn't, but the next phone call was. This one was also mind-boggling though. 'There's a lion loose near the shore!'

But there wasn't a circus anywhere nearby at that time. So where had the lion come from. And when Ken sent a squad car out to inspect, they found nothing there at all except some bewildered witnesses who insisted "it was right there, but it disappeared."

And Ken was distracted as he wrote that report down, because the dreaded phone call announcing the fifth missing child had, in the meantime, come.

The final call for the night was, surprisingly, Jyou again. 'Did something come up?' Ken asked, tired but concerned.

'In a way,' said Jyou. 'Kimura-kun doesn't remember anything about the missing kids, but when I was explaining stuff about digimon, he already knew it.'

Ken's eyes widened at that. After the events of 2005, the Harmonious Ones had reverted to their original plan of avoiding unnecessary contact between the two worlds. So while the Chosen Children had their partner digimon and were aware of them, nobody else was. And others' encounters with them were warped, so they never noticed it odd that extra-terrestrial creatures were holding perfectly normal conversations and walking around, or sometimes saving the world.

He didn't like remembering that either. The infection that had caught him, caught his friends, almost cost him the most precious thing in the world. He still remembered the blank way they'd all looked at him. The way they'd fought as though they were strangers and nothing more, just because some virus had gotten into his body and clashed with his dark Seed. And poor Wormmon and V-mon, stuck in that infected jogress until Vikemon and Rosemon tore it apart…and, oddly enough, it was one of the things that wound up bringing him and Jyou closer together. And that virus had arisen because humans had gotten too close to the digital world.

Humans were awful sometimes. He saw a lot of that, being a police officer. And now, some monster was kidnapping children and possibly doing worse. And the missing children reports started at him from the desks. Their names. Their photos. All the people worried about them.

 _Hang on…_

'Jyou…' he said slowly. 'Why would he know about the digimon, unless he's a Chosen?'

There was a pause on the line, and then Jyou's reply: 'Sometimes I forget, having Gomamon here soothing the kids…'

If the events of 2005 hadn't been removed from the minds of the world, Gomamon wouldn't have been able to do such a thing.

'But that just adds the possibility of a digimon being responsible.' Ken rubbed his head, still staring at the files. The writing blurred. He rubbed at his eyes and re-read the file. 'I got a report about a lion being on the loose as well.'

'A lion?' Jyou repeated, incredulously.

'Hasn't been confirmed,' Ken replied. 'But it would explain how a lion got to Odaiba when there's no circus for miles. And – ' He paused on a particular line. 'He has a twin brother.'

'Pardon?' asked Jyou. 'The lion?'

'Kimura-kun,' Ken corrected. The misunderstanding might have been funny in another situation, but not right then. 'Of course, he's already been questioned by the police – but we didn't try the digimon angle.'


	2. Chapter 2

**The Gate to Styx**  
 _Chapter 2_

.

Ken was more than happy to be sent off to question a witness for a new lead, especially since that lead was a lion that may have just been a hallucination in most eyes, but not to him. Jyou's comment about Kimura-kun's spirit recognising digimon prompted the theory, and despite them having no proof, it was one very reasonable thing that could tie it all together.

Wormmon was coming along, for several reasons. Because Wormmon came with him everywhere was the forefront of them, but he'd also be undeniable proof. Just in case having a digimon on his shoulder and a digivice wasn't enough to prompt a pre-teen to trust them. After all, the odds that they knew very little of the digimon situation in the real world were very high.

But still, there'd be some reaction. Or no reaction, if Wormmon didn't reach out and Minamoto Kouji wasn't actually a Chosen. He hoped that wasn't the case. It would make things even more difficult to find the rest of the other's team. And it wasn't the case, much to his relief, because Kouji answered the knock and just stared at the caterpillar on his shoulder.

'May we come in?' Ken asked, politely. 'We have a few more questions to ask of you.'

The boy shifted his gaze. 'You're the police officer from before. Ichi… ' He trailed off, forehead scrunching as he tried to remember.

Ken wasn't too surprised he couldn't. His brother had been freshly missing at the time. 'Ichijouji,' he corrected. 'But yes, I am working on your brother's case.' And six more missing children. One for every day of the week since it all began. 'Can we talk inside?'

Kouji looked like he wanted to ask something else, probably if there was any news, but "we have a few more questions" wasn't exactly a promising start to that, but said nothing as he lead him into the living room. And neither did the room's only other occupant (or maybe the house's, because there were no cars in the driveway or shoes on the mat): the German Sheppard flat on the mat. Wormmon gave it – him – an apprehensive stare. Ken silently laughed: the dog was a good deal bigger than Wormmon was, but lacked certain other benefits that came with digimon. Like speech, and attacks like his Sticky Web.

'What did you want?' Kouji flopped onto the couch. He sounded rougher, now. Maybe there'd been the surprise at opening the door to a digimon, then the hope that came with the officer standing there. Now it was hiding something else: fear, if Ken had to guess. What couldn't be said on the doorstep. What couldn't be said immediately.

A good many things, actually. But human minds did tend to jump to the worst case scenario.

'This might sound strange,' Ken began, 'but what do you know about digimon?'

Kouji's eyes went straight to Wormmon again, perched innocently on Ken's shoulder.

'That they're not supposed to be in the human world,' was his response. 'They disturb the balance of…something.'

They'd learnt that the hard way. Having their partners in the real world long term had caused the rift over ten years ago.

'We have a…system set up,' Ken explained. 'Our partners spend most of their time in the digital world, but they're able to spend time with us in the real world and be sent back quickly (or called back) if anything happens. And only other Chosen can see them. We make sure our partners aren't here often enough to disrupt the balance – but at the same time, we can't simply be away from them if there's another option.'

Kouji stared at his dog as he digested that. 'Partners?' he asked, finally.

Ken blinked in confusion at that. All Chosen had partners, did they not? And many who were not Chosen had, as well, like Oikawa. But those pairs hardly ever got to meet, and even less now that the digital world was a separate and secret entity again. 'Digimon partner,' he explained. 'The bond between us allows the digimon to digivolve and grow stronger.'

'Oh-kay.' He spoke as though the idea befuddled him. 'We had spirits.'

And that made little sense to Ken. 'Spirits?'

'Human spirit, beast spirit, ancient spirit.' He ticked them off. 'Human spirit was similar to champion level. Beast spirit which is somewhat stronger. Then we could combine the two and get double spirit evolution, which is similar to ultimate. And then there's hyper spirit which combines ten spirits – five human and five beast – and that's closer to mega. Then Susanoomon – who was the ancient spirit – and stronger than mega.'

'Like Omegamon,' Ken thought, 'and Imperieldramon. Jogress forms,' he added, but that wasn't a particularly helpful explanation either. 'Two digimon combine, and their Chosen become in sync. Daisuke once said he could hear my heartbeat like that.' But their tenue as Chosen was quite different, all in all. 'This is all very interesting, but more Koushiro's department. What I need to know is…' What did he really need to know? 'Are you familiar with a lion-shaped digimon?'

'KaiserLeomon?' Kouji asked immediately, brows shooting up. 'Why do you want to know about him.

' _Kaiser_ Leomon?' He knew a Leomon, but no KaiserLeomons. 'As in, a lion on all fours?'

'Yes.' He was starting to sound vaguely annoyed. Wondering no doubt why a police officer charged with finding his brother was asking all these questions. Maybe even regretting telling as much as he already had. But he continued on. 'Black with some godl, with lauchers on his back and the symbol for darkness on his shoulder –'

'Darkness?' Ken gaped at him.

Now Kouji openly glared. 'Do you have a problem with that?'

Ken was sure he'd missed something along the way. A theory was forming in his mind, but that reaction had just punched a hole in it. 'There have been reports of a strange lion wandering around town,' he explained. 'We have reason to believe it may be the perpe-'

'Not possible.' And Kouji folded his arms and sunk deeper into the couch. 'That's Ni-san's beast form.'

 _Wait, what?_ Everything about that statement was mind-blowing. And, dare he say it, wrong.

'You better not be telling me you think _Ni-san_ is –'

'That never occurred to us,' Ken interrupted hurriedly. It wasn't a good point to mention his brother – or spirit – was probably with Jyou at the hospital right then. 'Though that does confuse things more. We'll need to get a photo, or a thorough sketch and have you identify it though.' Assuming it wasn't something they were familiar with. Though try as they had, none of them could think of any digimon that looked like a lion except SaberLeomon, and no-one had described a wild mane like his.

Kouji was silent. Maybe he was thinking why his brother would be wandering around the city looking like a lion instead of coming back home. Or maybe he'd misunderstood something.

'When you said your brother's beast form,' Ken began.

'As in, we use the spirits to turn _into_ digimon.'

Ken stared at Wormmon. Wormmon shrugged; he'd never heard of it either. 'I know of the ancient spirits,' he said, 'but they're legendary. No-one knew where they were, just that they contained each of the ten natural elements that make up the world and were thought to be the world's source of energy.'

'Like our crests,' mused Ken. 'Except elements instead of personality traits.' And the symbol of darkness was on the lion, except it was what Kimura-kun became when he…evolved with the spirit? But that meant: 'So darkness is one of the ten elements. Kimura-kun's, specifically?'

'Are you one of those people who thinks darkness is a synonym for evil?' Kouji shot back. He didn't sound particularly aggressive though. Just…annoyed. And a little confused, no doubt wondering why KaiserLeomon, if it was him, was wondering about the human world. 'In any case, our spirits have forms separate to us now, and are busy rebuilding the digital world. We haven't heard from them since we returned and only Ni-san still has his digivice. Ours turned back into mobile phones.'

Ken shook his head. 'I think we're going to need the full story here. Aside from that though, we did have some news.'

Kouji straightened. 'Why didn't you say so earlier!' he exclaimed.

'It's…somewhat odd news,' Ken hedged. 'One of my friends – he's a paediatrician who runs almost clinics at the children's hospital, has had a few visits by a…spirit that looks remarkably like your brother. Including the…sweater he was wearing when he was last seen.'

Kouji stared blankly at him a moment, then, once again, said something startling. 'Spirit. Figures.'

.

Jyou was doing ward rounds when Ken called. 'So you talked to his brother?'

'It turned out to be a very confusing conversation,' said Ken, dryly. 'But I'm still with him. He wants to know if his brother's there right now.'

'I'm doing ward rounds.' He made a few motions to a nurse, who ran off to get a folder. 'I can get Gomamon to peak at the clinic and check, though.'

He did that, and Gomamon reported an empty clinic. 'Can't say for sure he's not here,' Jyou continued, 'but he's not with me.'

'Okay. I'll give your clinic times to his brother, if that's okay with you?'

'Of course.' Spirit or not, it was far from his mind to stop brothers from spending time together. 'But did you mention the amnesia?'

'…no. I forgot.'

Jyou couldn't blame him. He had a lot of things to remember, with seven missing children and a lion wandering around town.

.

Kouji's confusion had started when the police officer had stood on his doorstep with a Wormmon clinging to his shoulder. And had just increased with the partner digimon thing, and finally his brother ghosting the hospital without much of a clue as to who he was.

And yet, if he was doing that, how in the world was he also, as KaiserLeomon, wandering around Tokyo? Unless that was the KaiserLeomon that had separated from him after Lucemon's defeat. But why KaiserLeomon. Where were the other spirits? And what did any of that have to do with seven missing kids, one of them his brother.

He sighed and sank back onto the couch. Poor Kouichi, once he figured out what happened. He'd complained – after a bit of prodding – about how odd his body felt now that he'd had such an adventure outside of it, and here he was, outside his body again. Was it his body wandering as KaiserLeomon? Or was his body somewhere else, with the other kidnapped children.

Wasn't something like this supposed to be comforting? Except it wasn't. It really wasn't. His brother's spirit was wandering a hospital without much of an idea of anything (except he'd recognised a digimon, a Gomamon, and that somehow had led to connecting digimon in general to the case?) and his body was who knew where. It only meant he wasn't conscious, wherever he was. He could only be grateful for the fact that there wasn't another brainwashed Cherubimon to take advantage of the floating spirit, but rather a doctor who was a Chosen and whose friend was in the police and happened to be working on the case.

Could he go over anyway, he wondered? But Officer Ichijouji had given him a list of clinic times and said it would be easier to find him that way, since that's when Doctor Kido tended to see him.

But that wasn't answering _why_.

 _Is it really a digimon? And if it is, why haven't Ophanimon and the others told us?_

.

Eighth kid. Ken had been dreading it, but that hadn't stopped the kid from vanishing off the face of the earth.

They did found the second missing one, though. Not that it helped matters much, the dead body tossed into the water somewhere and washed up on a beach at Sarushima, and it was only luck that meant she hadn't missed the island and been dragged into the pacific ocean instead. Tokyo Bay was the only water link to Sarushima, but there were many rivers that emptied into the bay. Too wide a search area to cast a net.

And then there was the body itself. Dried blood in all crevices. Skin grey even when waterlogged. And bites…there were bites missing from her: her arm, her abdomen, the thighs – He'd had to swallow a gag at seeing the photos, but he made himself stare them. Six bites. One for each day she'd been missing, or was it something else? They couldn't tell the time. The water had washed away or soaked too much. The autopsy was, at least, clear in saying she'd died the day she'd disappeared: a week ago.

And what did that mean for all the other missing kids? That they were searching for their dead bodies instead of any sign of life from them?

 _No. That can't be_! Except it could. Even if one death wasn't conclusive of anything.

Even if that one death was something they'd failed to prevent. _This is why I'm a cop. To stop these things._

'Ken-chan?' Wormmon was still on his shoulder, and still calling him in that same, endearing way.

Ken offered him a small smile. 'Sorry. This is just…' He shook himself. 'We have to keep looking for these kids.'

'We'll get to the bottom of this together,' the caterpillar agreed. 'But Ken…'

'Yes?'

'Why don't you ask for Koushiro's help?'

He could have hit himself. Hadn't he even said that Koushiro would love to hear about the twins' and their friends' digital world journey? And he'd love the intellectual challenge of working out why there was a ghost wandering around the hospital, wouldn't he?

He scurried for the phone as though he had ten feet instead of Wormmon.

.

A half hour after he went back to the clinic, the spirit – Kimura-kun – had almost given him a heart attack. Again.

He doubted the kid was doing it on purpose. There wasn't exactly a "how to be a spirit" guide around, so trial and error was the only way to learn how not to flicker in and out sporadically, or how not to shoot through walls unless he wanted to. But still, having him suddenly appear in front of him, in the middle of screaming something, still gave him a shock.

Unfortunately, he missed what the boy had actually been saying, when he looked left and right, now simply confused.

'Is something the matter?' Jyou asked.

'I don't know,' the boy replied, brow furrowing – and, if he he'd been with Ken before, he'd have marvelled at how his twin had done the same. 'I was scared and angry, I think, but I don't know why.' And he rubbed his ears, as though there was water or something stuck in them.

'What do you last remember?' asked Jyou, curiously.

'Uhh…' He floated a little higher, as he tended to do while thinking about something. Not through the roof, at least. 'Playing with Gomamon. We were in the middle of a chess match.'

'Oh, I already won that one,' said Gomamon, from inside the playhouse. 'When your opponent disappears for a few hours, it's generally considered a forfeit.' And two siblings of the first patient Jyou had seen that day had taken to the board, starting and finishing a new game while he was busy with the other and their mother.

'That's not fair!' the spirit exclaimed, floating over to the board. It was set up for a new match. 'Rematch?'

They began a new game. Jyou wondered what the spirit did in those few hours he couldn't remember and couldn't be seen for.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Gate to Styx**  
 _Chapter 3_

.

It was becoming the new pattern. One kid turned up missing, and another dead. Another week passed, and at most points during that, there were seven kids missing. And aside from the first – Kimura-kun, they'd all be missing for seven days before their body was found. Was there a link somewhere? He couldn't rule out myths but that was all there seemed to be.

At least they'd somewhat sorted out the lion issue. No one person had gotten a perfect glimpse of it, but one of the other junior officers had pooled the reports and come up with a few possibilities. Ken had taken them back to the Minamoto household and Kouji had sniffed at the lack of a perfect drawing, before showing one of his own.

Ken poured over the picture. It was quite close to what the other officer had drawn, but for someone who'd seen it up close and personable, not one of those had been perfect.

'Can I borrow this?' he asked.

'It's a photocopy,' Kouji shrugged. 'I asked Junpei for one after you visited last week.'

He sounded about the same as last week. Honestly, once the deaths hit the news, Ken had been expected the Minamoto-Kimura family to be crushed. After all, most of the missing kids had turned up dead, and their son was the first to go missing. And the parents embodied that. But Kouji – 'Did you come up with an idea?'

'Not really.' Kouji stared at his feet. 'Just that, the last time he was a spirit, he turned out to be in a coma here. And I find it weird he keeps on flickering in and out of existence. I mean, why would a proper ghost do that?'

'Koushiro has a theory about that.'

Kouji's head snapped up.

'He thinks it's possible Kimura-kun's…spirit is going back and forth between his body and the hospital.' Kouji blinked and processed that. 'In other words, we only see him as a spirit during the times he's unconscious…'

'And when he's not there, he's awake…wherever he is.' Kouji's expression tightened. They hadn't revealed the photos to the public, nor to the families of the missing. 'If only Ni-san _remembered_ were that was, we might've been able to rescue him already.'

'And everyone.' Though he couldn't blame Kouji for not thinking about the rest of the missing right then. He remembered Daisuke's singlemindedness in getting to Tamachi when there were digimon loose all around the world. And it had saved both him and Wormmon. They'd have been Triceramon chow if he hadn't come.

'And everyone.' Kouji's face looked sad, all of a sudden.

'Anyway, Koushiro thinks it might be possible to trace spiritual energy…or something.' He'd have understood it, once upon a time, but no longer, and that was fine with him. 'We still have no idea why he picked the children's hospital of all places, but if we can trace the connection back to his body, we'll be able to find the missing children – and whatever's been taking them.'

'You still think it's a digimon?' asked Kouji, quietly.

'We're confused on that,' Ken admitted. 'There's evidence of internal bleeding in all the…bodies we've recovered – ' Should he even be talking about such things to an eleven year old civilian? 'But Koushiro's been monitoring digimon appearances ever since an incident in 2005 and hasn't detected anything new.'

Kouji stared. 'Not KaiserLeomon either? Or…it might not be him.' He stared at the paper in Ken's hands.

'It might also be a spirit,' said Ken, 'just like the Kimura-kun in the hospital.'

Kouji stared harder. Swallowed, and then choked out: 'You're saying my brother's soul is wandering around in _pieces_?'

Ken wished he'd brought Wormmon along with him this time. But he hadn't. 'It's all theoretical,' he said, finally. 'Have you seen your brother yet?'

Kouji shook his head. 'I tried a few times. But…I don't know if it's a good idea any more.'

'You're afraid he won't remember you,' Ken surmised. 'Particularly after what happened in the digital world. And that'll be your second worst nightmare coming true.' He could understand that, somewhat. Of course, Osamu had died before the digital world, before the Kaiser, before BelialVamdemon. But still… 'There is a possibility we won't be able to get him back, alive.'

Kouji glared. Ken simply closed his eyes. Glares like that could pierce his soul anyway, but not seeing it so plainly made it just a tiny bit easier to bear. 'A very large possibility, considering how badly we've been doing at the moment. And are you going to risk seeing your brother again on the miracle that we do get him back?'

…darn it. He'd made the kid cry. Ken rubbed his forehead, then opened his eyes and slid off the couch, kneeling next to the other boy who was furiously trying to scrub his tears away. 'My brother died,' he said quietly. 'A long time ago. I'd argued with him. And I never got the chance to apologise. It's not the same for you, but that doesn't matter. Don't let this chance go to waste.'

Kouji covered his eyes, taking deep, almost gulping, breaths. 'Okay,' he said, finally. 'I – okay.'

Ken straightened, relieved. 'Would you like a ride?'

.

Gomamon and Kouichi were playing chess again. It was somewhat amusing to watch them, because Gomamon was getting better but still no match for the other boy. Except this time, Koushiro was watching too. Watching and doing complicated things on his laptop and with the few gizmos he'd brought along to test out his theory, while Jyou tended to patients in another office.

That was when Ken and Kouji came in, and Kouichi started them all by shooting right through Koushiro to get to his brother. 'Kouji!' he cried happily.

Kouji blinked, then stared at his brother as he went through him as well – and the door.

Gomamon broke the ice by bursting into laughter. 'You overshot!'

Kouichi floated back through the wall, looking embarrassed.

Kouji just stared at him. 'You…remember me?'

'Uhh…' The spirit floated silently for a moment. 'I was calling you, I think. Before. And you came.'

'But you don't know who I am.' Kouji lowered his head.

'Important,' said his brother.

His head shot up again.

'You're important,' Kouichi – his floating spirit – repeated. 'I can't remember the relation, but you're very important. Somebody I want to protect. Somebody who wants to protect me. Someone I…love.'

'That's enough.' Kouji was crying again, but this time he made no movement to brush away those tears. Koushiro and Ken exchanged a smile over their heads. 'That's enough. Who cares about a stupid human word anyway?' He sniffed. 'Seriously: family, brothers, twins – they're all the same.'

The adults left the two boys to it. 'How did it feel to have a spirit pass through you?' Ken asked, curiously.

'Didn't feel like much,' Koushiro shrugged. 'The definition of intangibility – though it does disprove the common metaphor of being dunked in ice cold water.'

'Remember to tell Takeru that one. Just in case he winds up needing to describe it in the fu – is something wrong?'

Koushiro's screen was flashing. Kouji had cried out as well. Ken glanced at him – and only him. The spirit was gone.

Koushiro was staring hard at the screen, fingers flying across the keyboard in a pattern only he knew and could understand.

'Where'd Ni-san go?' asked Kouji's – slightly panicked – voice.

'We're trying to find that now,' replied Ken. Koushiro said nothing, focused on his computer – until he groaned and slammed it shut. 'Not yet?'

'Narrows down the net,' said Koushiro, 'but considering the net was pretty much all of Japan, that's not saying much.'

'It's something, though.' Ken was grateful. The more hints they could get, the more children they'd wind up saving by the end of it all. 'If we can send the digimon out to search, we might be able to narrow the search down further.'

'I'll do the calculations,' Koushiro promised. His cell rang right then.

.

'So, we worked out that the lion is definitely KaiserLeomon, and he seems to appear with the spirit in the hospital and disappear when he disappears,' Koushiro was explaining. Ken was back at his desk, looking over the latest report. Another person missing. Another person dead. And part of him longed to punch his desk so he wouldn't keep on getting those files – but what was the point of that? They needed to find the being responsible. That was the only way things were going to stop.

'So we've solved the mystery of what the lion is,' Ken mused, 'but not why. Just like we don't know what Kimura-kun's human spirit – uhh, you know which one I mean – ' Because there was the human spirit that made him a digimon as well. 'Is in the hospital.'

'No,' said Koushiro. 'I have theories. Kimura-kun might know why the other children are being targeted. The lion is always spotted somewhere nearby the area of their disappearance, but he may be powerless as a spirit to do anything about it.'

'Or amnesic as well.'

'Or that,' Koushiro agreed, 'in which case he might be looking for the other parts to himself. The body, or the spirit at the hospital. Or he really may be wandering aimlessly, but I'm reluctant to believe that when there's a pattern to be seen.'

'Understandably.' Ken nodded to himself. 'And tracking the energy gave you a perimeter. Anything else?'

'Noise,' said Koushiro. 'There's noise I can't get rid of.'

Ken blinked. 'That's unusual. So you don't know what's causing the noise?'

'No.' And Koushiro sounded very grumpy at it. 'It's quite annoying to not be able to get a lock on something because of noise of all things. And Kimura-kun doesn't mean to be unhelpful, but the amnesia and the lack of information regarding what goes on between his…ah…visits, is quite frustrating.'

.

This time, they left the half-completed game of chess (against Koushiro, who'd been taking a break) exactly as it was. If Kimura-kun flickered in and out of…consciousness, for lack of a better term, then he wouldn't notice a difference immediately. They, however, would. The spirit appearing after a few hour absence was enough difference, after all.

And when he appeared, Koushiro played close attention to him. And noticed things they missed before. The blank, despairing look in his eyes that quickly faded. The lips, parted as though they were calling out to someone, or simply screaming in pain. The hands, twitching like they wanted to grasp something and even coming up a little way to do it, before changing their course. And the brief look around before he slipped into the game from before.

'What did you see?' Koushiro asked, curiously. 'Between your last move and this one.'

'The board?' Kouichi tried. Not the answer Koushiro had been hoping for, but sometimes when the backdrop didn't change, the subtleties of the stage became more pronounced. He shook his head a little. And Koushiro noted that curiously because he'd done that before. Jyou and Gomamon had mentioned it too.

'Did you hear something, then?'

Kouichi frowned and drifted up a little. 'An echo,' he said. 'Though it felt like there was water or something in my ears, for a moment.'

'But gone now?'

He nodded.

Koushiro hummed and made the next move, before pulling the laptop over. He was about to win, anyhow. Kouichi was good, but not quite good enough to beat him or Ken. 'Sound,' he mused. 'Like this?'

Kouichi winced at the Flymon's beating wings coming from the laptop speakers, but shook his head.

Koushiro tried a few others, between moves. He considered abandoning the game entirely, because they might be able to narrow the digimon responsible down – but it was a slim hope. How many people could pick a sound out of a lineup when they only remembered a brief echo? Muffled at that. By water or by blood. Both were possibilities, given the autopsy reports Ken had on his desk.

A digimon that destroyed capillaries by sound. A digimon that harmed, even killed, by sound. And yet it was also a digimon that could hide from his analyser, from the blanket they'd spread across the whole world.

Was it a digimon they weren't aware of, like the digimon the Chosen of Kimura-kun's generation became? Suddenly, they knew so little about that world. But there were people who did.

Except, when he called, through Ken, to ask Kouji, the boy had no idea. 'Ni-san might have. He knows far more than the rest of us about the digital world, thanks to Cherubimon and his library.'

But they couldn't ask a boy who hadn't even been able to remember his own name about a digimon he may have only read about before.

.

'A digimon who kills by sound?' Kouichi repeated.

'We were hoping you'd have some ideas,' said Jyou. Koushiro was working on things from home again, needing more capacity than he could get from the hospital bandwidth.

Kouichi shook his head. 'It doesn't sound familiar. I'm sorry.'

'Hey, it's fine.' The Doctor shrugged. 'It must be frustrating.'

'There must be a reason for it.' The spirit floated a little higher.

Jyou watched, curiously. 'How do you mean?'

'Well, Kouji and I were talking.' Of course, he'd heard about that little visit from the others. 'I've been like this before, you know. Except I ran into Cherubimon and he gave me the corrupted spirits and a solid form. But if I hadn't, and he hadn't, I'd have been dead on that gurney.'

'I heard,' said Jyou awkwardly. What else could he say? 'We guessed something similar happened this time, and that's why you're not dead like the others.'

'I'm not sure I like that.' Jyou didn't know if he was talking about them knowing his past or about the dying part, and he said as much. 'Both, in a way. I remember that place, vaguely, where I was bodiless and without hope. My lowest point, until I sunk even lower. Personal demons that no-one else should know.'

Jyou was silent for a moment, but the boy said nothing more. 'It's okay,' he said, finally. 'It's okay to have demons like that. Everyone does. And it's okay for others to know about them too. Maybe not us: we're almost strangers. But the reason we asked about it all was so we could find you. And save you.' He paused, then added: 'You were so cheerful, when we first met? So innocent.'

'Without my memories,' Kouichi corrected. 'Now I know more. I know I've caused your friend to comb the city with a fine tooth comb. I know people are dying, because I can't do something about it. I know if only I could remember what happened in those times I'm not _here_ – '

'Hang on!' Jyou exclaimed. 'What was that about you not doing something?'

Kouichi blinked at him. 'That's – more of a feeling, but you and Izumi-sensei are always asking what I saw, or felt, or heard, and it feels like I'm arguing against something, about something I can't even do –'

'And what made it click?' He almost didn't want to ask, but he did. The spirit looked so sad, though. But he wanted to solve this mystery just like they did.

'I can't,' the boy replied, almost dully. 'That's what I was thinking. Right in the middle of that chess game and I thought it was just because Izumi-sensei had me backed into a corner on the chest board.'

'And now you think it might not be.'

'Either way.' The spirit seemed to curl into himself. 'If I'm there with those other kids and still alive, I'm obviously not helping them.'

'You're helping here,' Jyou said quietly. 'Playing with Gomamon. Playing with the sick kids –' The spirit flinched. 'I'm so – ' And then vanished.

Jyou wished he could have said more before he did.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Gate to Styx**  
 _Chapter 4_

.

He was always disorientated when he woke up, like his mind had been somewhere else and he knew it was because his mind _was_ drifting – or rather, bits of his soul. Not that it was doing any good. Not that he had any control over what happened between the three of them. Not that they'd managed to stop _it_ from snatching another kid, from killing them, from that awful scream that, for whatever reason, hadn't quite succeeded in ripping his spirit from his body.

Maybe if it had, _it_ wouldn't be going this far.

Or maybe it was because he wasn't dead yet that the other was so sure he could –

'Open. The. Gate.' Low. Gluttoral. The monster that had become his waking nightmare and yet, when it would be useful in his slumber, it slipped away like a ghost that was never there.

He gritted his teeth. Somehow, they'd figure it out. They were getting closer. But slowly. So slowly.

His resolve crumbled. Another child was caught in its claws. 'Please…'

It wouldn't listen. Never listened.

'Open. The. Gate.'

The girl whimpered. He croaked. 'I can't. I told you, I don't –'

It opened its mouth: deep, hollow, gaping.

About to scream.

'Don't –'

Screamed.

'Cover your ears!' But it wasn't a loud enough yell. He'd yelled too loud, too quick, wasting all those chances that weren't really chances at all. Now it was too hoarse, too quiet.

But just as useless. And that shrill cry was digging into him again: tiny needles stabbing everywhere and drawing little trickles of blood that would probably be dry the next time he woke again.

.

The clinic. Again. His heart was still pounding but in the absence of anything to cause him fear, it quietened. And already, it was slipping away.

'What is it?' They've gotten the hang of this. Better than him, anyway. Knowing there was a semblance of something in those first few precious seconds.

'Cover your ears,' he repeated, before wondering why. What would that do? And why?

'Cover my ears?' A bemused Doctor Kido followed his orders, before uncovering them again. 'Oh, you were just remembering that.'

'I'm not sure I can manage it.' Gomamon was struggling to get a good grip over his pointy ears.

They both laughed. If he'd forgotten every other visit to this clinic, that might have been it. A happy time playing, then disappearing, then appearing again and continuing a new game but the adults had worked out too much of the puzzle for that.

Now, instead, he felt guilt gnaw at him. He knew full well that everything he didn't recall meant further delays in stopping…whoever. Izumi-sensei was pretty sure it was a digimon, but he still couldn't work out where they were acting from. 'Like those creatures from the Dark Ocean that were haunting Hikari-chan that one time,' he explained, 'or maybe like Apocalymon. A digimon whose largely in another plane, but still somehow affecting this world.'

'Largely?' Doctor Kido had repeated. 'As in you have managed to get some signal from it?'

'About the time Kimura-kun,' and he'd nodded to Kouichi, floating behind them, at that point, 'appears here. Not long enough to get a full reading of the signal.'

This time though, there was no Izumi-sensei. No Officer Ichijouji either. Just Doctor Kido and his Gomamon, Gomamon still trying to cover his ears.

'It's okay,' Doctor Kido sighed, before giving Kouichi a questioning look.

Kouichi shrugged. He couldn't hear anything except the hum of the computer and the room's two inhabitants now. But there was definitely something before that. Something dangerous.

.

'What do you know about the digimon?' Ken asked tiredly. Two and a half weeks, and they had ten dead kids on their hands and seven unaccounted for. He really needed a lead, and Koushiro was working as hard as he could to find one, but every day lost meant another kid dead and another kid whose body showed up in Tokyo Bay.

'It's an Ultimate,' said Koushiro. 'And a virus type. And it makes some sort of sound that damages. Kimura-kun managed to remember that much.'

'And there's no digimon in the database that matches all that?'

'Not mine,' said Koushiro, 'but we know it's outdated because of those spirits and Lucemon and the IceLeomon and IceDevimon. We've never heard of them.' An unfortunate truth. 'I've emailed Gennai, but he's taking his usual while getting back to us.'

Ken sighed. 'Either he's taking his sweet time, he doesn't know any more than the rest of us or it's a time difference issue.'

'Too bad the Chosen of this generation don't have any contact with the digital world,' Koushiro sighed.

'…hang on,' Ken said suddenly. 'Minamoto-kun mentioned something about the digivices.' Then he groaned. 'He said only Kimura-kun still has his.'

'That doesn't help us at – ' Koushiro paused. 'If he has it with him, it might be possible to track down.'

'No luck on the spirit side of things?'

'Nope. Until I get the coordinates of the plane they exist on, I don't think I can do much except rather fuzzy points…which pretty maps out the entire Tokyo area.'

'And even with surveillance everywhere we can think of, they're slipping through the nets time and again.'

At least though, they'd worked out the kids were _literally_ disappearing. So Koushiro's pocket in another dimension theory was looking more prominent by the second.

.

Koushiro was disappointed at himself for forgetting how they'd been unable to track the Chosen who vanished into the Dark Ocean. On Hikari's first visit, it was simply because she didn't have it. But the second visit, with Miyako and Ken, all three had their devices and they'd simply vanished from the screen.

So, of course if there was a pocket dimension in the works, he would have about as much luck tracking Kouichi's digivice as he'd had with the spiritual energy trail. And that was exactly what happened.

'Is something wrong, Koushiro?' asked Tentomon from the pocket space he'd designed from the digimon. Because Gomamon had to be out more often, the others were graciously giving away some of their own "out" time to compensate. Especially since they now knew the cause of the city-wide electrical disturbance earlier that year.

'The usual,' Koushiro sighed. 'I can't find a way to track a signal to a dimension that's not this one or the digital one.'

'You'll figure it out,' Tentomon encouraged. 'You always do.'

'Thanks buddy.' Koushiro gave a small smile, before turning his attention back to the problem.

For some reason, it clicked right then. He had two ways to track Kimura Kouichi. If neither of them were bearing much fruit on their own, why didn't he just try them together?

.

Ken's phone rang early that morning, and he felt queasy even looking at it. Miyako had almost ordered him to stay home, but she knew as well as he did that things would just be worse when he went back if he did. 'We'll take a holiday once the case is solved,' she said quietly. 'The three of us.'

And she and their barely year old daughter waved him off to work.

And now, when he'd barely taken his coat off, the phone rang. Probably another body discovered, and though he knew he shouldn't think that way, he couldn't help it. They hadn't gotten much further. Tightened their search net but still spotted nothing. If Koushiro was right, then they were missing the timing and it would be very difficult to grasp that when they didn't have a specific place to set twenty-four hour surveillance at.

To his surprise, it was Koushiro. To his very pleasant surprise, Koushiro sounded…excited. Which was unusual for him but usually boded well, especially if he was about to say what Ken thought…

'I found the place!'

 _Finally._

Now they needed to nail the timing, and the spirit that kept on appearing at the hospital was going to help them with that.

.

'Do you remember us when you're awake?' Ken was asking.

'I…' Kouichi looked between the detective and the researcher in bewilderment. 'I don't know. Have you..?'

'We have a location,' Ken explained, cutting across Koushiro's more long-winded version. 'But it's a pocket from another dimension, and the window of opportunity seems to be too small for us to manage anything in. So…'

'You want me to drag…whatever it is out.' It seemed impossible, but the spirit seemed to grow even more translucent.

'If it's possible.' Ken was hesitant to ask this, but it was necessary. Despite knowing the place, and the time, they couldn't get up there before it was gone. 'We called up the old crowd, as well. Nine Ultimate digimon should be enough to take care of whoever it is. But we have to get in there first.'

'I…' _I can do this…right?_ 'Okay. I'll try.'

They might have clasped him on the shoulder in a comforting shoulder if they could. But they couldn't. 'Don't get yourself killed,' said Ken. 'There's always another way.'

The spirit floated, tense and uncomfortable. 'When?' he asked, finally.

'As soon as we can get into position,' said Koushiro. 'We need someone here to let us know when Kimura-kun vanishes, and we'll all need to be close to the emergence point but also within reach of a computer connected to the database.'

'We can manage that quickly enough,' said Ken. 'Miyako's been handling the phone calls, and pretty much everyone can come. We'll actually take the longest, from here.'

'Not Jyou for once.' Koushiro's lips twitched. Jyou had managed to land a very lucky day off.

'Now, for who –'

'Is Kouji alright?' Kouichi interrupted, suddenly.

'He was fine last I – ' Ken blinked. 'Oh, you mean to stay here?' He looked at Koushiro, who shrugged. 'I don't see why not.'

A brief phone call was all it took. Half an hour later, everyone was where they needed to be…except a certain bodiless spirit.

.

'Please don't do anything stupid,' Kouji pleaded.

'I can't promise I'll remember,' Kouichi replied, his tone sounding a little flat, even to his own ears. 'This could all fall through.'

Kouji was silent for a moment. The chair – the doctor's swivelling one – creaked as he slowly spun. 'I don't know which one I want,' he admitted, finally. 'I mean, I do want them to save you, but…what are the chances? This isn't destiny too, is it?'

Kouichi cocked his head a little. 'That sounds familiar.'

'It should.' Kouji managed a smile. 'I've said it before. That our chance of meeting in the digital world of all places was slim to none, and so it had to be destiny.'

'Ah.'

They sat – or floated – in silence.

'I wish I had my spirits,' Kouji grumbled, finally.

'Think of it this way,' his brother offered, 'you'll be the fireworks that sets off the operation.'

'…is that supposed to be a joke?' Kouji asked incredulously. His brother's face was strained. 'Sorry. I know you're scared it's not going to work, or it is and you've got to buy time against a digimon who makes some lethal sound –'

His brother flickered. His breath hitched. He pressed the button that called Doctor Kido's pager – their agreed form of contact.

'You can do it,' he said, quickly, before his brother vanished entirely. 'I believe in you. We all do. Come back safe.' He was almost tripping over his words, but he managed to get them out before his brother was completely gone.

Now it was out of his hands. He wished it wasn't, but it couldn't be helped. Without the other warriors. _At least let KaiserLeomon be there with Ni-san…_

.

Jyou's pager rang, loud enough so the twelve Chosen collected there could hear it. They looked at each other, then their digimon who nodded and spread out and exploded with light.

Within seconds, there were nine Ultimate digimon in the place of twelve Child level ones. The second generation's had jogressed together; the remaining six stood alone. But that didn't matter. They were the original Chosen either way, and surely what lay in the pocket of space beyond wouldn't be beyond their abilities to handle.

None of them wondered why there had been new Chosen against Lucemon, despite their experience. It wasn't the time, or the place. Just a window they had to fly through.

And they launched themselves into the air, heading for that portal.

.

His brother's words were still in his ears when he awoke, gripping them tightly, though there were groans and guttural snarls attempting to eclipse that. It took him a moment to orient himself again, but when he did, he cringed back. Again. It was going to repeat again.

 _Buy us time…if you can…_

He remembered.

 _We'll defeat whatever digimon it is… and get you the other kids out of there._

Only one other kid, he thought despairingly. The smell didn't burn his nostrils anymore. Coagulated blood had stopped them both. The others were already dead. Dead as soon as that scream sounded. And this one would be dead soon too. All because…

'Open. The. Gate.'

He couldn't. He couldn't. He'd just wandered into whatever world it was, then the digital world, then back to the real world. He'd played no active role in that at all. He couldn't open a gate anywhere, least of all to where that skeletal beast wanted to go.

'I – ' He caught himself. _Buy time. You've got to buy time._

 _How?!_ he screamed at himself. There was only way.

'I'll do it!' he screamed. No, he wouldn't. He hadn't a clue how. 'Just stop! Please stop!'

The paw loosened. The boy squeaked in terror, then scrambled loose. It didn't matter. He was still trapped. They were both still trapped.

The boy tripped over a corpse and screamed again.

The beast opened his mouth.

'Don't!' He squeezed his eyes shut. _Please let this work._ 'I – I won't help you if you scream. I won't!'

It was idiotic. Hopeless.

It worked. The beast didn't scream. 'Open. The. Gate.'

And now what? How was he going to pretend to open the gate long enough? He could barely think straight. Why couldn't he be unconscious again? _But they need you awake. You'll never get out of here otherwise._

 _I know that!_

But he didn't know what to do now.

'Hurry.' The beast was impatient too.

He choked on his breath, on the clogs of blood that clung to his mouth and throat.

For some bizarre reason, that gave him an idea. A crazy one, but it was all he had. Because he couldn't blab about just anything. Had to sound ritualistic. And the only thing he could recall was that Hippocratic oath Doctor Kido had a copy of in his clinic. 'To reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him and relieve his necessities if required…'

Well, it seemed to be working. He hadn't been interrupted yet.

Until he was. By an explosion enough to steal all his senses away.

.

The kid managed to pull it off. They dove into the pocket dimension, made sure all human sized bodies were a safe distance from the skeletal thing that was definitely _not_ human – and then they blasted it.

The digimon fell back, then reared back up. They stared at it. 'Like SkullGreymon,' Taichi whispered. Except it was clothed in flesh: grey flesh and purple fur adorning his lower body, and tall horns as well. And yet his skin still seemed to cling to his form. Still skeletal. Still half dead – but not yet, even after taking the attacks of nine Ultimate level digimon.

And when the beast reared back, they tensed. Would it attack, or scream?

.

It must have been the other digimon. But he was still there. Black against the white. Still alive. Rearing up to scream

'No!' He screamed. They'd die too. They, and everyone else, one by one. 'Get away!'

.

That question was solved for them. They could try and block their ears, but they'd thought of a better way. Imperieldramon could travel faster than light and sound, after all. He snatched the human-sized bodies up, and then they were gone.

When the monster screamed, it was, like it always should have been, to an empty world.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Gate to Styx**  
 _Chapter 5_

.

In the end, they'd gotten only two kids back alive. One who hadn't even been reported missing until after Ken got back to the station and found the report waiting on his desk, and the other who'd helped them get there.

And the digimon had disappeared again, back to the dimension where it had come from without a scratch. That was the most frustrating part, that the case wasn't solved even if they'd recovered all the bodies plus the two that had survived the ordeal, because new kids could still be snatched away, and the old ones weren't safe either, and the lion – KaiserLeomon – was still a ghostly shadow on Rainbow Bridge that spanned Tokyo Bay, staring up at where the pocket in the dimension had appeared.

It was a bad omen, of sorts. Told them things were far from finished yet, even if they had all the answers.

Because Koushiro's computer had been in the proximity of that digimon for long enough to finally get a read on it. And though the name had escaped them, he was able to remake its appearance, read its potential attacks – and it had one called Dead Scream which was probably the cause of the deaths and the blood in the body crevices – including Kouichi's, but excluding the kid who'd managed to escape hearing the scream.

And then Gennai came back to them with a name: Gulfmon. And that was the third last piece of the puzzle. The second last was what he'd been after in the first place, and once Kouichi woke up, they could ask him and hopefully clear that matter as well. And, of course, last was how to defeat it so it couldn't come back and do such a thing again.

.

He could hear beeping, and he stiffened but it continued in a slow drone and he forced himself to relax. He recognised the sound. A heart monitor of some description, monitoring a steady heartbeat.

Or maybe not so steady. He heard the sound of running feet approaching. It sounded almost foreign. It would have been entirely alien if he hadn't remembered all those times in the clinic, in the hospital – the few times Doctor Kido had chased after him because he'd accidentally gone through a wall or the roof…

It was funny then, but not anymore. And…it'd screamed!

The monitor shrieked. An echo of the monster's shriek. His forced his eyes open, his arms to move – even though he knew there was no point, that his arms were bound by those dark tendrils and even if they weren't, even if he was watching, he couldn't stop that scream, couldn't stop the blood, couldn't stop the dead and if nine Ultimate level digimon hadn't managed to pull it off, then what hope did everyone else have? If he hadn't – hadn't – hadn't – they wouldn't have been there to die in the first place, and he hadn't even saved that one kid in the end as well –

The scream dimmed. Over; just echoing. And fog in his head again: water he was drowning under, always drowning under. He wanted to scream himself. Move. Get out of it all. But he was falling like a stone.

.

He was floating. Panic was in his chest and his ears ringing but both were settling now that there was nothing to panic about. Just the clinic's waiting area, teaming with children and doctors. A few reached to him. They remembered him. But last he'd been there was with Kouji, when they'd planned the…rescue. So he had to find one of the adults. Doctor Kido. Officer Ichijouji. And Izumi-sensei whose title he didn't know and hadn't gotten around to asking. None of them were in the clinic, so he drifted through the roof. He'd worked out how to do that on purpose by then, and he knew, roughly, the layout of the hospital. He drifted through wards one at a time, keeping out of patient rooms and hoping he wasn't missing the doctor in doing so.

He wasn't. He caught him rushing hurriedly somewhere. 'Kido-sensei!'

The man jumped and dropped his folder. 'Oh.' He blinked for a moment behind his glasses, before stooping to pick the papers up. 'You're okay.'

That comment didn't really make sense in context, so Kouichi skipped it in favour of answers. 'What happened?' he asked. 'Did it work? Are you all okay – '

'Slow down.' He held up his hands. 'Koushiro's plan worked for the most part. Whatever you did delayed Gulfmon enough for us to get in there. And we attacked. The first bad news is our attacks didn't leave a scratch.'

He drew a sharp breath at that. Nine Ultimate level digimon and they hadn't left a scratch? Then what would.

'So it's still out there, roaming around its own dimension in the meantime. Though Koushiro's got a lock on it now, so we'll know the second it appears in the real world again… But aside from that, how come you've slipped out of your body again?' He blinked at the spirit. 'Wasn't it Gulfmon's Dead Scream doing it?'

'I – ' Had he heard it? It felt he had. That racing heart. That ringing in his ears. 'I thought I heard...'

Doctor Kido frowned. 'You couldn't have.' Because there wasn't any blood or a dead body this time. Just a report of what the treating physician suspected to be traumatic recollection…which could be anything from a single panic attack to a more chronic PTSD.

.

Everything was blurry, and heavy. No sharp awakening, and there was a strange comfort in that fog, and in the silence. Even the beeping of the heart monitor was gone now. Just the sound of someone breathing near him, and the cluttering of small metals and plastic.

'Oh, you're awake.'

He forced his eyes open. Officer Ichijouji, along with his Wormmon, smiling kindly.

'Ready for your meal?' He pushed a trolley. Kouichi winced at the squeaking noise it made and the officer stared closely at his face but made no comment. 'It's been…technically almost three weeks since you've eaten, but that pocket dimension doesn't seem to have taken as much of a toll on your body as the real world would have.'

'Dark Area,' Kouichi corrected. Was he hungry? Weak and tired, yes. His limbs wouldn't stop shaking when they opposed gravity. But no growling stomach. Rather, it seemed to be uncomfortably knotted.

'Noted.' He even pulled out a notebook and wrote it down. 'Koushiro will be glad to have another name.' He sounded like he wanted to continue that line of thought, but pulled himself back instead. 'Wasn't sure which meal you'd prefer so we ordered the chicken –'

Bile crawled up his throat and he swallowed, hunching forward and squeezing fists of blanket tight. Officer Ichijouji stopped talking immediately. A breath later, he was rubbing soothing circles. 'Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Wormmon?'

Kouichi opened his eyes. Wormmon was pushing the trolley away, out of the room.

'You okay?'

He nodded. His throat still burned, and now his eyes burned too. At the simple mention of meat – but no way he could eat meat again after –

'You're shaking.'

'He ate them.'

Ken blinked, then realised what topic they'd switched to and his eyes widened in horror. 'A-ate them?' He scolded himself mentally for the stutter. He was a police officer; he'd seen worse.

'He's some sort of underworld god,' Kouichi continued. He stared at where the table had been. Wormmon had tucked it away somewhere. Maybe outside the room. 'Immortal. Looking for the gate of death.' He snorted, though it sounded hollow, and pulled his knees up to his chest. 'Like I can just _open_ that stupid gate.'

 _Well…_ Ken thought with some surprise. _There's the motive, at least._

But he really didn't like how different the kid sounded, now that he was awake, and safe. And that had nothing to do with the hoarseness that came from screams and bleeds. Not that he was surprised. He didn't need to be a doctor to jump to a provisional diagnosis. Sure, there were checklists and things, but most kidnapped kids suffered the after-effects and this was a somewhat gorier case. They'd brought him back alive, in the end, but that wouldn't erase what he'd seen, what he'd suffered.

Jyou had asked why he still ghosted the hospital. Maybe a coping mechanism. Avoiding the nightmares that were sure to be waiting otherwise. Far better than sedatives or sleeping pills (hell, some of those _gave_ nightmares instead). And they had nothing better to offer.

But awake and tense and just waiting for the other shoe to drop was another story.

'How about I get Jyou to bring up Gomamon and the chess board? I've got time for a game myself, and then I'll leave the two of you to it.'

.

'Or maybe it's because we're not finished yet,' said Koushiro.

'That's awfully cold,' Ken thought aloud.

'But a possibility.' Koushiro didn't turn away from the computer. 'To miss something like that because we're factoring in human emotions would just lead to more pain in the end.'

'That's true.' There hadn't been any reports of the lion since. Its role was done, whatever it had been. Signposting the place? Hadn't turned out to be much of a help in doing so. The department had let it go as a red herring. The Chosen were less inclined to agree. Koushiro in particular was not willing to rule out the possibility that the lion too had a role yet to play.

'And where is Gulfmon now?'

'Dark Area still.' Koushiro sounded almost annoyed. 'If only he followed a system that made sense to humankind, we could predict when he'll show up today –'

Ken was amazed it had slipped his mind. _Complacent because you rescued two kids_ , he scolded himself. The source of the problem was still out there.

'Why Kimura-kun, anyway?' he wondered.

'He has died before,' Jyou replied. Gomamon was still upstairs. 'Clinically, I mean. The doctors in the emergency room had half-called it when his brother and friends barged in and created a miracle.'

Ken found himself smiling. He probably shouldn't have been, how close those children had come to a tragedy. But the miracle of the moment was just something to behold. Always would be. Just like sending a kid nice and safe back to their parents was, watching them wave thankfully as he got into his car and drove away.

Then he frowned. 'Animals can smell a dead body. Some are drawn to it: the scavangers.'

'It's quite possible digimon can also smell that,' Koushiro mused, 'despite the fact that, when the person survived, the toxins that are formed in death are flushed out. They must leave a sort of…stain. Add that to the fact that digimon seem to be able to smell out Chosen Children.'

'Gulfmon's going to come here, isn't he?' Jyou sighed. 'We'd best be prepared.'

.

'He's coming _back_?' Kouji whispered, horrified. His brother had curled up silently against the headrest at the news.

'We think it's a good possibility.' These were the sorts of conversations Ken disliked. Why couldn't it be a "the man responsible is behind bars and will never hurt you again" instead?

'And you didn't make a scratch last time.'

'Not one we could see anyhow.'

Kouji ran a hand through his long ponytail. 'I wish we still had Susanoomon.' Then he blinked. And turned to his brother. 'Has Ofanimon said anything to you?'

'Ofanimon?' Kouichi repeated. It seemed a struggle for him to pull himself into the conversation. 'I…don't think so…'

'And your D-scanner?' he persisted. 'Where is it? In your jeans' pocket?' At a nod, he rummaged in the closet for it. But its screen was blank.

Then again, digivices tended not to work in someone else's hands. Even in a twin's. Kouji handed it to his brother and Kouichi took it, hand still trembling. He managed to grip it though. And it came alive, glowing a soft yellow and displaying something that made little sense to Ken, but apparently meant something to the twins.

'Is that supposed to be a message?' Kouji's tone twisted in fear and annoyance.

Maybe it was just a signature then.

'Lowemon and KaiserLeomon.' And Kouichi smiled faintly – the first smile he'd seen all day from him, Ken realised – and held the digivice closer.

And then he stiffened, wide-eyed. And screamed…something. But all their ears were ringing with a high pitched noise and they couldn't hear anything else.

.

Daisuke shook Ken's shoulder. Ken shook his head and pointed at his ears, then searched for the twins. They were both on his knees, Kouji shaking his brother who'd clamped both hands over his ears and was still saying something…or screaming something that none of the rest of them could hear.

And then he stared in front of them, at Gulfmon. And Daisuke tapped hid D-3. And Ken nodded. Imperieldramon took the stage. And Omegamon, Vikemon and HerakleKabuterimon. They hadn't called the others this time. Hadn't had time. But unless they found a way to make their attacks stick, it wouldn't matter.

It seemed Koushiro had at least found a way to not make the sound of Gulfmon's scream kill them. Even if it had temporarily – or permanently – robbed them of their hearing. Though the digimon probably had other moves under its belt, and they were in trouble if they couldn't counter them.

Though all he did was punch and kick and scratch with his behemoth claws. They managed to parry those, but parry was all they could do. Shove him back, and he crawled forward in the darkness that had surrounded them again. They were on his turf now, and he was like a rubber ball who bounced away and came back with each attack.

And none of them had a brilliant idea to change the situation. Koushiro's eyes were flicking to the twins and Gulfmon, as though he was missing something. Ken found himself doing the same. Kouji was just trying to drag his no longer screaming brother back but he wasn't moving at all. Jyou was trying to get him to talk, made difficult by the feeling of water between the ears. He couldn't hear Jyou from here. He could hear Koushiro though, standing next to him and mumbling theories to himself, though he couldn't quite make out the words. He hoped the researcher had an epiphany soon though. They needed one, otherwise they'd be stuck in the stalemate forever.

He switched back to the battle. Claw met blade. Foot met canon. The beast was shoved away and bounced right back. None of their attacks damaged. None of them penetrated. But Gulfmon shouldn't be stronger than their digimon and they were all in the same plane now, weren't they?

'Pockets in pockets,' Koushiro grumbled. He'd already figured out they weren't.

So they still had to anchor Gulfmon before they could strike. And how were they going to pull that off?

'Open.' Whose voice was that? None he recognised, and Gulfmons lips were moving. 'Gate.'

Kouichi gave a little sob. He'd heard that too, even through his hands. 'I can't! I can't!'

His brother glared at the offending beast, but he could do nothing either.

HerakleKabuterimon blasted is face and shoved it back a little. It came back, padding through the darkness and slowly, slowly, gaining ground.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Gate to Styx  
** _Chapter 6_

.

Gulfmon was still there. Hit again and again, but still there. Kouichi couldn't tear his eyes away. Not like his brother who had his back to the beast, trying to get him to move. How could he move? And to where? The entire Dark Area was its domain, its feeding ground, and how many times had it bled into the real world? How many children had he killed, bodies he devoured, just because he'd lived another day when he was seeking the path to death.

And if the digimon wanted to die so badly, why was it so hard to destroy him? Why was that scream at the edge of his mind? The hammer about to fall – and when it did, they'd drop dead around him like flies and he'd wake up to bites missing from –

Kouji shook him. A little roughly, but effective enough.

 _Don't think. Don't think._

His fingers tried to curl into fists, but he was holding something. He couldn't see what. Gulfmon was still there. Gulfmon, parrying against the mega digimon, saving its greatest attack for when he tired of playing with his food. And in the meantime, he bounced back from every other attack. Let it hit. Dodged it. Hit it back. They were safe enough at the moment, behind all that. Not safe forever. But nowhere was safe forever.

Kouji's lips were moving. But Kouichi's ears were ringing and he couldn't make out what the other said.

.

'Ni-san! Ni-san!'

His brother wasn't looking at him. Not responding. Just staring at that beast who'd swallowed his mind. He'd tensed when shaken, but that was all. If there was any action in that body aside from the unconscious stuff, it was going on inside, where he couldn't see.

 _What I wouldn't do for some twin ESP right now…_

He chanced a look behind him. Gulfmon seemed a little nearer now. The other digimon spread out a little more. Attacks landing between them. Attacks that were bouncing back – or being thrown back. And they were inching closer. It wouldn't take much more before one stray attack hit them: two defenceless children.

And then there was suddenly a splinter of sword landing almost right next to them. And he gave a panicked cry and tried to shove them both back. But that didn't work. They just fell sideways instead. Unsteady and even easier prey.

And there was a growl behind them. Not Gulfmon though. Familiar. Safe. But not quite there, like the angel that came to protect from the nightmarish ghost. 'KaiserLeomon?'

The answering rumble was music to his ears.

.

Suddenly, he was flat on his back and Gulfmon was no longer visible. He knew it wasn't gone. He could hear that sounds echoing still: those footsteps scraping through the darkness, but it wasn't in his field of view anymore, and he could see other things. Kouji, picking himself off of him. And above him, the shadow of a lion of black and gold.

And when Kouji's lips moved, Kouichi's mimicked. 'KaiserLeomon?'

The lion disappeared. A keening sound escaped his throat before he recalled what he clasped. His D-scanner. And KaiserLeomon's spirit was in there.

His grip tightened.

.

'I don't believe this,' Daisuke grumbled, in between yelling encouragement to Imperieldramon and making sure that no stray attack had hit the twins or any of the other humans present. 'How are we not hurting him?'

'It's to do with the different dimensions,' Ken explained, before Koushiro could confuse him further. 'Though we're in the Dark Area too now, we're on the human world side so we're not quite on the same level. And Gulfmon is taking advantage of that.'

'Lacking the ability to actually open the Gate – ' They'd tried that with Ken's digivice, and Hikari's, but neither had managed it. And, as far as Kouji could tell them, the D-scanners never _had_ the ability to open gates. ' – we need someone on the other side shoving him into this world.' Koushiro blushed at the poor explanation. 'Crudely speaking.'

'Imperieldramon blasted BelialVamdemon through that wacky dream world and right into the digital one.' Daisuke balled his fists. 'Come on, Imperieldramon! Blast him again!'

'That's exactly what I'm doing, Daisuke!' the hybrid shouted back, loading his canon again. Omegamon blocked the in-swinging arm and gave him a chance to fire it. 'Thanks, pal!'

Omegamon simply grunted, because he had to swing his sword again, this time to catch a leg.

And the adults really wished an epiphany would hurry up and come to them.

.

The epiphany came. But through the third party. The twins suddenly exploded in light – or rather, one twin. The other scrambled away as his brother grew and morphed.

Ken recognised the shape instantly. The others took a little longer. 'KaiserLeomon!'

And when the lion dove into Gulfmon in a streak of darkness, he marvelled to himself: _so that's what spirit evolution looks like._

Until it clicked that that meant Kimura Kouichi was now a digimon. Literally. The kid that was pretty much shell shocked a few seconds before.

'I hope he'll be okay,' said Jyou quietly, watching too.

The beast felt the attack and roared. And the lion was halted in its tracks, but not thrown back, still pushing forward, the two locked in a temporary stalemate unlike the ping-pong game the rest of them had played.

'I hope this'll turn the tide,' said Koushiro, before smiling a little. 'Kid's got guts.' He raised his voice. 'Everyone! Attack from behind!'

They did it. They wouldn't normally have, but this was a special case and they did it. And Gulfmon roared in pain and spasmed. The lion skidded away and revered back to his human self and his brother dashed to him. 'Minamoto-kun!' Ken yelled. Of course, Kouji wasn't listening. Who would when their brother could be hurt, and he didn't blame the boy one bit. But that was far too close. 'Imperieldramon!'

Imperialdramon heard and understood, and scooped up the two boys and dropped them a little further away.

.

He'd rammed Gulfmon with his Black King, but it had just bounced back. It hadn't worked. And the shockwave had forced him out his evolution too.

'Ni-san! Are you okay? Say something!'

Why was Kouji sounding so near? He opened his eyes. Kouji _was_ near. Kouji and the other digimon too, holding Gulfmon off again. Struggling. Pushing it back. Getting pushed back. Tiring while Gulfmon seemed to have limitless energy to go along with its immortality.

'It's hopeless.' The words slipped out before he could really stop them, and as soon as they were out there, he didn't want them to be true. But what could they do? They were two out of six with one set of spirits and, well, they'd just seen how much they'd add. Pretty much nothing.

'Did you miss the whole screaming in pain part?' Kouji asked incredulously. 'That's a hell of a lot more these adults have managed on their own.'

'Hey!' Taichi was close enough to hear that. Yamato too, but he just grunted in response. 'Apparently we're the cleanup crew.'

But there wasn't going to be anything to clean up if they couldn't get the damage in first.

'Ni-san,' Kouji tried again. 'Those attacks worked. Dunno why it was only when you were holding him back with your Black King, but it did.'

Kouichi wondered how he'd missed such a thing. 'I didn't – ' He was short of breath already. 'I didn't see –' But KaiserLeomon still wasn't enough. He'd be thrown back again. Could they attack in that window? 'Can't push for very long…'

Koushiro caught on to the question. 'Not a lethal blow,' he calculated quickly. 'It would take a few times and that might be too much. Can you Double Spirit evolve?'

Kouichi shook his head. 'I'd do it,' said Kouji. 'I'd do it except I don't have my D-scanner or my spirits, and even if I had them both, they're light and it looks like darkness might be the only thing to work.'

'Figures.' No-one missed the bitterness. But they all ignored it. It wasn't the time or the place. But Kouichi clutched his digivice tighter. Of course he'd try again. He had to try again. As long as it took – or until he couldn't move anymore.

And he deliberately avoided looking at Gulfmon that while. He just looked at his spirits. At KaiserLeomon's ghost that was no longer there. At Lowemon. Imagined them melding together. _Help me. Please…_

He felt them fuse together, enter his body, and grow.

.

This time, the light gave way to a lion on two feet. Armoured from head to toe, and a lance as well. And with steel wings that looked like they could be as much a weapon as the lance he held.

Inside the armour, Kouichi could no longer hear, or see. Just feel: the presence of his brother, his allies, his enemy: all in a net under his control. He couldn't aim. Not as inexperienced as he was. But he didn't need to aim. After all, Gulfmon wasn't really there. Running under a film, thinking it was safe, thinking it would gain its goal without risking permanent deletion instead.

That was no longer possible.

.

'What is that digimon?' Daisuke asked, awed. 'That armour's cool, you know? And those _wings_.'

'Hey,' said Imperieldramon. 'Our wings are cool too, you know.'

Taichi hid his laugh under a cough. Not that it was really time to laugh. Vikemon and Omegamon were wrestling with an arm each, keeping it from getting closer.

The new digimon who'd appeared on the battlefield hadn't actually _done_ anything yet.

Koushiro scanned it. 'Double Spirit,' he said, 'it's taking a while, since it's a new – ah, here we are. Reichmon. Has the ability to…' His voice trailled off, his features slowly morphing into a grin. 'Looks like we got our dues ex machina.'

'Don't keep us in suspense!' Taichi exclaimed.

But he didn't need Koushiro to explain it. Reichmon raised a hand…and suddenly, Gulfmon was covered in a grid of yellow lines. That was Reichmon's power: to disable the laws of physics in any area and drag the opponent forward – or shove them away.

'Attack!' the warrior growled.

The others did. And this time, they connected in the same dimension.

Gulfmon roared one final time – a moot roar – and crumbled.

'And there's Death's gate,' said Reichmon, before the data that held its evolution unravelled.

.

'You're pretty amazing,' said Jyou, 'you know that?'

Kouji shrugged, almost teasingly. 'I tell him that all the time. Does he listen?'

'I'm not,' Kouichi argued. It was a little hard to argue when everyone was against him though. And a silly reason to be arguing too. They were joking with each other, really. Trying to avoid talking about more important things. Like the discharge summary, and the medications and all their side-effects, and the symptoms he needed to report and the counselling he had to attend…

'It's a lot,' said Jyou apologetically, 'but it's important. We don't want you freezing at every school bell, for example.'

He hadn't even thought about that. School. Getting back to his normal life. Without Gulfmon there every time he opened his eyes.

'And you need to eat,' the doctor continued. 'Stick to fruits and crackers and things for the time being. Don't force yourself to go back to eating meat if you don't want to – but make sure you take your supplements if you don't.'

He wondered if he'd ever be able to stomach meat again, after seeing that. Or watch certain horror films.

'And you're welcome to come visit whenever you like. And Gomamon will be practising chess…and his jokes.'

Both twins' lips twitched at that. Jyou grinned. 'Sorry. He made me add that.'

The parents were confused. They didn't know Gomamon – or if they'd ever met, they'd forgotten. But they didn't complain. A smile – even a small, tentative one – was worth far more than the short term medications.

'Don't refill the Zoloft script,' Jyou continued, switching back to professionalism. 'We'll re-evaluate you in a month and see if we need to continue it, but hopefully not. It'll give you trouble sleeping – which might actually work in your favour – ' Though he couldn't say exactly why in front of the parents, ' – and agitation. Just to be mindful of.'

The parents nodded again. It was funny having three. Birth mother and legal guardian, and then the father and step mother. But it was good they were together. Tolerant of each other at least. One less pressure to deal with during the healing process.

'And once you can walk around the house on your own, pick up some sport. Soccer, basketball, whatever. Just something to get you moving and out of the house. Okay?'

Kouichi nodded. He'd think about that later though.

'And remember,' Doctor Kido leaned in close and whispered in his ear: 'Gulfmon's gone. He'll be reborn a different 'mon, and we'll be keeping an eye on him. So whatever high pitched noises or dark corners haunt you, breathe and remember how we blasted him out of the Dark Area. Okay?'

'Okay.' He'd remember that. He'd seen it. The only thing he'd seen while in Reichmon's armour. The only thing he'd needed to see, in the end. 'I'll remember.' After a pause, he added: 'Thank you.'

.

Ken was glad it was almost over. All that was left was him to write up the final report…which would have been a difficult endeavour if Gennai's patch didn't automatically override any mention or memory of digimon accessed by someone not a Chosen. Which meant he could write the truth in the report and leave the patch to override it into something less incriminating, and despite how bizarre it might seem, it would be readily accepted and dumped in the solved pile and if, for some reason, a Chosen needed the file at a later state, they'd be able to read it in its original state.

Giving the parents' closure was the same. The twins' knew the truth and that wouldn't change, but their parents got the censored version, just like all the other parents. The other kid that made it out was the same. He'd never know the truth about who had snatched him up and almost killed him. And those other parents would never know what had half-eaten their children before disposing of their seven day old carcasses.

But the Minamoto-Kimura twins know. And if they told their friends, the other Chosen in their generation, they'd know too. And them, of course: the adult generation. Jyou and Gomamon who'd been the first to find the ghost. Ken who'd wound up on the case. Koushiro who'd found himself neck deep in research. And the others who'd all come to fight. They'd know the truth. They'd know the lion wasn't a mass hallucination but a child's brave heart and protector. They'd know the ghost wasn't a hospital symbol but a defence countering what otherwise would have been certain death. And they knew the kid leaving the hospital had taken a step against his trauma that his parents didn't know, much less understand.

But if the world ever did grow accepting of digimon, that'd be something to add to digimon-related crime cases. Getting the kid in question to play a major role in the defeat is a good way to, mostly, alleviate the fear of them coming back to haunt again.


End file.
